Window

Watcher

Caribbean Colors

Needs Boat

St. Lucia

Learning the Cuatro

At Museo de las Américas.

Finishing Touch

The shopkeeper at Olé in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico putting the finishing touches on my new Sombrero de Panamá.

Wow, it's been awhile since I last posted. I've been dedicating much of my free time for the last year to learning to play the guitar. I'm hoping to some how accommodate these two very time consuming passions. The photo bug is starting to itch again! This photo was taken on the causeway to Antelope Island State park in Utah, near Salt Lake City

Spaceship Earth

As many of you guessed, this is Epcot Center, or, more correctly, it is the Spaceship Earth Pavilion at Epcot Center.

Context

We got some good guesses on Monday. Someone did recognize it and let me know via private message. It's pretty hard without any other context.

Hopefully, this image gives a little more context without totally giving it away.

Geometric

I know, it's been awhile - this is the first post of new work for this year.

Can you guess of what this image is?

Deep

By the time I arrived in Zion National Park in mid October, I had been on the road for about a month. I was getting very tired of hotels and campgrounds.

However, the beauty of Zion smashed that home sickness away. What an amazing place. October is the perfect time to visit. The crowds have thinned, but the shuttle buses are still running. The weather is comfortable, and the leaves are changing color.

This photo was taken up the Upper Emerald pool where the walls of the canyon loom over you.

While in the park I keep running into pair of Portuguese photographers, Joao and Antonio. It was quite funny - lots of "you're following me" jokes. In fact, we had dinner together on their last evening in the park when I stumbled into the same restaurant.

Be sure to visit Joao's and Antonio's websites.

Also, take some time to visit Skywatch Fridays.

Lemonade

Almost anything can look good in the right light. Take for instance, this tree. It has a nice warm red tone that goes well with the green surrounding it. That warmth is only enhanced by the early morning sun.

However, I can only see what it represents. I don't think that this will ever look pleasing to me. This tree is dead as a result of Mountain Pine Beetle damage. This bark beetle is native to North America from Mexico to Canada. The beetles bore into the tree for food and egg laying. This usually results in the death of the tree.

The current epidemic is much bigger than epidemics in the past, and effects millions of acres of trees western North America. The severness of this outbreak is believed to be caused by a number of factors, such as: recent droughts weakening trees, a series warm winters, past fire control strategies.

During our recent vacation, we spent some time in Steamboat Springs. I was appalled at how bad it had become. I was last in the Steamboat Springs area about 2 yrs ago. The difference between then and now is astounding and very depressing.

All I could think about was the loss of beauty and wildlife habitat, the future fires feed by all the dead wood, the erosion, etc.

While it’s not good, it’s not all bad. While in Kremmling, Co, we talked to the lady at the Visitor's Center. She says it’s a mixed bag - the death of all those trees is providing a lot of employment. There are a lot of dead trees that if left standing could be very dangerous. Besides providing fuel for fires, there is also danger from the trees falling. There are many campgrounds, picnic grounds and even forest roads that are becoming increasingly dangerous due to the threat of falling trees. Many people are finding employment logging these dead trees.

Additionally, the pine beetles leave behind a blue fungus that stains the wood. There are some that consider it beautiful. I've seen decorative items carved from it as well as furniture, paneling and cabinets. I think that it's better to use the already dead wood rather than cutting down new trees. However, apparently the market for beetle-killed wood is rather small.

Another use for the dead wood is as a source for creating cellulosic ethanol. According to the Rocky Mountain News, a Canadian company plans to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in Colorado, which would convert beetle-kill, among other wood waste, into ethanol fuel.

But more than that, the death of these trees open up eco-zones for other plants (aspens, wildflowers, and grasses) and animals (deer, elk, etc).

I don’t think that these thing make up for the death of many millions of trees. It is simply an attempt to make lemonade. It does however, leave me wondering “What can I do”?

That’s my world this Tuesday. Be sure to visits other worlds at My World Tuesday.

Devil's Head

Today, I'm trying something a little different. I've been restricting myself to showing, at most, a single picture a day. Today, I’ll post a little series.

On Saturday I went to Roxborough State Park to catch a sunrise shot. I got a few, and by 7:00AM I was done. Instead of driving home via the Interstate, I took the Rampart Range road – a 60-mile gravel road from the town of Sedalia to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

Along the way, I stopped at the Devil’s Head trail. The trail is about 1.4 miles climbing up about 950ft to the historic Devil’s Head Lookout Tower. It was built in 1921 and is the last remaining of 11 original Front Range lookout towers.

Once you reach the cabin where the ranger stays, you can climb up the 143 steps to get the lookout. The tower is a small glass-enclosed building with lots of lightning protection. I’d love to ride out a storm up there – what a sight that would be!

From the top, you have a great 360 degree view. According to the USDA National Forest site, one can see mountain peaks over 100 miles on a clear day.

If you're ever in the area, it’s a great hike with an interesting destination. But, bring water!

I’ll share some of the other photos in a future post.

That’s My World! Go to My World Tuesday for more.

Ghost Post

Juniper in Garden of the Gods. If you've followed my blog for awhile, you may notice that I really like stark images of individual plants and rocks. Here's another example found in the Garden of the Gods.

I put this post up on early Saturday morning and scheduled it to be posted Sunday morning. Hopefully I am having fun and capturing some great images at this moment. It's kind of nice to get away from the computer for a few days.

Lanterns

Yellow and red lanterns against the blue of a building at the Kek Lok Si temple in Penang, Malaysia.

I was in Malaysia last year on a business trip. Luckily I had the opportunity to do some sight seeing and my co-worker Lai was good enough to take me around.

The architecture and colors of this Buddhist temple are amazing. I would love to return and see the place when all the lanterns are light.

For other objet de blue, point your browser over to Blue Monday.

Blast from the Past: Hohenschwangau from Neuschwanstein

A view of Hohenschwangau from Neuschwanstein Castle (Schwangau, Germany 2002). Neuschwanstein was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and is said to be the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. Bavaria is a beautiful place to visit: beautiful views, tasty food, nice people, wonderful beer.

Blast from the Past: Statue and shadows

This shot was taken from the back of a tour bus in London, UK (2002). Thus, I don't know what the statue is, nor what the buildings are. I liked the play of light and shadows, and luckily got the shot. To me, the shadow on the far right has always seemed ominous - it looks like the shadow of hawk's beak, heading towards the cute little kid.

Blast from the Past: Gimmelwald, Switzerland

I've decided to try something new in this blog. Every Wednesday, I’ll feature a photo that I took in the past. Many of these will be from old low-res point&shoot digital camera or scanned from film. The quality of the photo may not be the best, but hopefully the image itself is interesting. Hopefully, this will inspire me to digitize a bunch of old slides and film.

This picture was taken near Gimmelwald, Switzerland during my sabbatical in 2002. I got interested in going to this area thanks to Rick Steve’s European travel series on PBS. Apparently, I’m not the only one. While in Gimmelwald, we stayed at Walter Mittler's Mittaghorn Hotel. After dinner one evening, we all asked for Heidi Cocoa (a hot-chocolate with peppermint schnapps). Walter grumbled something like “damn that Rick Steve’s and his Heidi cocoa!” I don’t believe we ever mentioned Rick Steve - it just appears that Walter has been asked for Heidi cocoa too many times and knows who to “blame”. We had a wonderful time there and that was one of the funnier moments.

Swiss Cows

Here's another blast from the past. This picture was taken near Gimmelwald, Switzerland during my sabbatical in 2002.

I went on a hike through a local dairy farmer's land, stopping along the way to buy some wonderful Alpenkase cheese. I can still hear the bonging of the cow bells.

Kek Lok Si Temple

Here's a shot of Kek Lok Si Temple in Penang, Malaysia.

The photo has been cropped to make the picture more interesting.